My Q, abscess and sever anemia

[Labs101]

Okay, so my puppies are getting old. Jade has Cushing's and Q, who turned 10 on April 24 suddenly got very sick. He'd kinda started losing energy and then, over a weekend he just got extremely lethargic mainly b/c I think it just plain hurt to move. His eyes seemed to go very dark. He'd also lost his appetite. We though Lyme's or Rocky Mountain, but he was neg for both. He is very anemic, at 45 rbc. He had abscesses behind both eyes, or at the jaw joint, in that area at least that had to be drained. He is on doxicycline (sp?) for infection and dexamethasone for pain and inflammation. He definitely seems to be getting better. I am really praying that his anemia is the result of the abscess infection, or that he just got bitten by something, and that is all. I am so nervous that I'll have another dog that will need constant care and expensive treatment. I guess I'm asking if the RBC being so low could be only the result of an incident and not an underlying and ongoing condition. I just want to know if I can possibly hope for this.

[Spiceysmum]

Hi,
Sorry to hear that Q has been ill but glad that he seems to be recovering now. We all know was it is like to worry over our older dogs. My Spicey, who had cushings lived until she was 14 and Brin, my other dog will be 16 this year. In January he had internal bleeding and was very anemic with a rbc of 21. Even when he recovered his rbc only went up to 25 and when the vets looked back in his records is seems that this is normal for him. I just looked it up and, unless the actual numbers are read differently in the UK, 45 is a good number. Hope Q continues to improve.

Linda